I'm going for my third acupuncture treatment with Dr. Needles tonight as part of my preparation for my IVF cycle which starts in September.

Here's a report on a medical study in the British Medical Journal from Feb 2008 titled, "The Effects of acupuncture on rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing invitro fertilisation."

Quotes:

"Conclusions: Current preliminary evidence suggests that acupuncture given with embryo transfer improves rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation. "

"What is already known on this topic:- In vitro fertilisation is lengthy, expensive, and stressful (duh!!)- Safe, low cost, adjuvant treatments to improve success rates would benefit patients and reduce costs (you bet!!)

"What this study adds:- Current evidence from methodologically sound trials showed an odds ratio of more than 1.6 for clinical pregnancy after in vitro fertilisation with adjuvant acupuncture- On average, 10 women would need to be treated with acupuncture to bring about one additional clinical pregnancy- The magnitude of this effect depended on the baseline pregnancy rate"

Based on this study, and others, my acupuncture clinic claims: "Those who received acupuncture increased their chances of conceiving by 65%."

Do any of you out there in the interweb have acupuncture success/failure stories to tell?

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Why didn't we start ART sooner? - I'm 39 for goodness sake!(Answer: because first I wasn't ready and then Mr. Jem wasn't ready)

Why did I think gleefully evil thoughts when I heard that previous (live-in) boyfriend couldn't have kids because of a childhood accident?(Answer: No idea. I know there's no direct correlation between my evil thoughts and our present situation. I can't help think that some twisted karma has me and Mr. Jem facing Male Factor IF.)

Why did I decide to wait until next cycle (in September) to start IVF? I'm ready to start now!!!(Answer: because Mr. Jem and I weren't psychologically ready and we have some travelling to do before the IVF cycle starts. I'm totally ready/impatient now!!!!!!!!)

How come two of my male colleagues just had babies, but not me?(Answer: who knows?!)

Monday, August 24, 2009

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me, especially for you. I don't profess to be a super crafty person, but I know my way around the web enough to find some awesome how-tos!

I promise I'll make it worth your while!

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

I make no guarantees that you will like what I make but I hope you will.

What I create will be just for you.

They say I have a year to get it to you. But I promise it will NOT take that long (11 months maybe, but NOT twelve ;-)

You have no clue what it's going to be. It’s a surprise to both of us at this point.

The catch? You must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

So the first five people who post, and are willing to pass it along,will get a handmade gift in the mail from me.

When you get it, make sure you post a pic on your blog! This sounds like an awesome way to take my mind off of the current IF "goings on."

Saturday Mr. Jem and two friends (one guy and one girl) went to Great America. I bought the tickets 6 weeks ago and we were all really excited to go on all the thrill rides.

Saturday rolls around, and the girl keeps begging off riding the rides. It becomes obvious that something is up. We look at the signs in front of each ride: there are pictures of a person with a hurt neck, another with a hurt back, another wrapped up (recent surgery), and a pregnant baby. My DH blurts out, "You aren't pregnant, are you?" And our friend says, "Yes. I didn't want to say anything as I'm only 7 weeks along, but I can't lie."

Oh, boy.

That's almost as good as the time I traveled cross country to visit and friend (from college) who I hadn't seen for years and she opens her front door with a huge belly. She neglected to tell me she was knocked up. I wanted to cry the whole dinner.

I never got Chicken Pox as a kid. When my best friend Y and her brother had it I went over to their house, but never got it. Dr. Wonderful said that if I got it an adult, the symptoms would be much worse.

German Measles is a whole other story. If I got it while preggers it could cause deafness or retardation in the baby. Gulp.

I could take a vaccine, but then I would have to wait 3 months to start my IVF. Dr. Wonderful said that would be fine if I was 25 (I'm not. I'm 39!!).

I said I didn't want the vaccine. He then recommended I stay away from groups of children. I work in corporate America at a Fortune 500 (but a much smaller number) company. Some of the employees may act like children sometimes, but that doesn't count. I should be just fine.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Just back from seeing my RE, Dr. W. I'll call him "Dr. Wonderful" from now on, especially after the wonderful news from today's visit.What's on the menu for today's visit?As an appetizer, the chef recommends an ultrasound. Main course? Saline ultrasound with a "mock transfer" for dessert, of course. It's the house specialty.So, I'm waiting for Dr. Wonderful to arrive. I'm naked from the waste down, flimsy paper thing gripped at my waist, sitting on the crinkly paper at the bottom of the examination table, and what do I see? This:Yes, folks. Those are pot holders over the stirrups. "Gourmet Classics," indeed! I can hear the ad now... "We cook up nothing but the best here at the clinic." I could go on to make omelet jokes, but I'll leave that up to the more humorous blogs (shout out to 999 Reasons to Laugh at Infertility).So, the wonderful news it that my uterus looks great. No cysts. My ovaries are producing eggs as we speak. The mock transfer was easy and painless. Actually, I barely felt anything!Dr. Wonderful said he's going to change my Rx to lower doses of meds because things look even better than he had suspected.Mr Jem and I brought over our test results to the acupuncture clinic associated with the the IF clinic. "Dr. Needle" looked at all the results and gave Mr. Jem vitamins and herbs to take to make his sperm better, swim better. We were both a bit skeptical as we're doing IVF with ICSI, but Dr. Needle reassured us that it should help. Hmmm...

Thursday, August 13, 2009

I'm a married woman, age 39. My husband D and I have been TTC since January 2007. Nada.

We finally went for fertility testing May 2008. Me? All good to go (FHS levels at 6.6). Him? Not so good. Very, very low sperm count. 100,000! Dr. L, my OB/GYN, even asked, "Did your husband ever have chemo?" Nope. His family does have a history of low sperm count. It took his parents years to conceive.

A year went by, life went by. D was finally ready to face fatherhood again and did sperm analysis again in May 2009. Good news, sperm count up! Bad news, not up enough (600K is still low, when "normal" >5 million!)

I immediately scheduled an appointment at a Fertility Clinic with Dr. W, recommended by Dr. L.

Only option open to us if we want a baby with both our DNA? Invitro Fertilitization.

We'll start our IVF first cycle mid-September 2009.

This blog is to catalog my journey towards conception.

"What's this 'ambivalent womb' thing?" you ask. It's about the mixed feelings (ranging from total excitement to abject terror) I have about motherhood, the ups and downs about being "fertility challenged."

I am happy to know that there's a whole community of women (and men?) out there in the interweb to share with.

Jem

P.S. Wow, this is blogging? Really? What took me so long? It's so much easier than I ever imagined.

About Me

I'm 43 years old and married to Mr. Jem. We have one fur-baby, Sharky. We've been diagnosed as male-factor and done three IVFs, plus one frozen embryo transfer. Our "hail Mary" medicated IUI using donor sperm resulted in a pregnancy. Rosie, born 1:44 p.m. on April 27, 8 lbs, 10 oz, 20 inches. Pure Joy!